Bear Mountain

Linnhe Reed has a story to tell. “I was golfing with Kim Wright late August at Red Lodge Golf Course along Highway 212 when we had an encounter that lasted about 45 minutes."

"First, we noticed a mother bear and cub in the chokecherries along the highway” as they played the 16th hole. “Then when we were at the moat hole, we see this dark spot as we approach. I thought, ‘Is that a lab?’ But it stood up and we saw it was a bear cub!” Soon, the sow joined him. She stood nearby eating grass. It didn’t take long for them to come up the hill unseen.

“We were so surprised to see them! They didn’t take much notice of us.” However, taking no chances, they left the 17th hole. “We dropped our clubs and proceeded down the hill (She noted that neither of them had made it to the hole anyway, Reed had chipped).” They left their golf cart up the hill.” The cub proceeded to play and gambol about.

“We were excited and a little leery at first, but they didn’t pay any attention to us. We were all the way down the hill.”

“Then,” said Reed, “the golf cart peaks (the cub’s) his interest.” He headed towards the empty cart. Wright looked at Reed and said, “You didn’t leave any treats, did you?”

Reed said, “I told her I had emptied my pockets of any dog food bacon treats before leaving the house.” Since a bear can smell blood a mile away he might have smelled some remnant of bacon on the cart seat from her empty pockets or from prior golfers. He proceeded to sniff around and to their surprise, climbed right up!

“We thought about calling the golf course,” said Reed, but they decided against it since the bears were so non-threatening. The two bears soon proceeded on their way diagonally down the hill to the north and away from them. Reed considered the fact that they could have changed direction. “Then we got a little nervous.”

As she had watched the bears above she thought, “Are we going to have to hitchhike on 212 for a ride to hole #17?” But the bears did move on.

As for the golf cart? “They have the paw prints and claw marks on the plexiglass window” to prove it she said.

“It was exciting,” recalls Reed. “We weren’t as close as it looks,” she notes. She used the closeup on her phone camera. Nevertheless, she said, “It was just so thrilling!”